


Her or The Monster

by XantunsiaRiveresiana



Series: Xantunsia Riveresiana Chronicles [13]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Duelling, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Gen, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Samurai | SAM (Final Fantasy XIV), Short, inner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23628577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XantunsiaRiveresiana/pseuds/XantunsiaRiveresiana
Summary: A long overdue duel, but who or what will win it?
Series: Xantunsia Riveresiana Chronicles [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700809





	Her or The Monster

A calm passes over the Lochs. The cry of nearby beasts muffle, the waters become still, the very air dies down as the two Miqo'te samurai face each other. The elements themselves dare not disturb this moment. And a moment is all it is. Two flashes of steel cross, and in that instant they dance to kill. Five steps, ten steps, twenty steps, in a frenzy they execute as many slashes as they can into their instantaneous rondo. And though it is instantaneous, it is clear which of the blade moves faster, stronger, more precisely. Surely, by the dance's end, this blade will be the one left. And yet, that last step, the dance's finale, it obtains from taking.  
Again.

The dance ends abruptly, not as it should, without the connection of either blade. Instead, the ending comes from the connection of a boot, square in the chest of the faster samurai.  
"You hesitated again!" Yells the slower miqo'te. Though clearly battered and ragged, he seems spirited. At least compared to his opponent.  
The quicker, despite having almost no visible wounds except the repeated kick marks on her chest, seems well past the point of exhaustion. Had this been the first 100 times they'd gone at it, she'd have probably responded with some banter to the uppity child who insisted he would "train" her. Then around round 300 maybe she'd have been legitimately impressed by the boy and offered compliments. Had it been 800th go, we'd hear the ever rare complaints from the hardy and tolerant hero. But we were well past that, and the two blades were just crossing for the 2000th time, the 3rd day of this straight. No banter comes from the stronger blade. No compliments or complaints; she simply kneels there, a strained look fluctuating between fear and rage resting on her face as the boy lectures her.

"To protect, to save, to support, whether its your axe, your magics, bows, fists, mudras, or lances, you always fight with that nonsense anchoring, restraining the monster inside"  
Despite supposedly trying to help her, the boy looks down on his training partner as he speaks, his eyes filled with so much frustration that is borders on contempt. He places the tip of his blade under her chin as he continues.  
"Those anchors will only weigh you down with a katana. You swing it to kill and nothing else, and for that, you need the monster."  
With a growl his opponent knocks the sword off her chin and begins another assault. As the two assail each other, the boy's lecture continues.  
"Do not mistake your actions with your reasons! You may kill to protect, you may kill to save but you are killing all the same!"  
The swings from his foe grew faster, their hits sending shockwaves as he spoke.  
"And you cannot bring out your full strength to kill if you keep shackling the monster inside you!"  
The warrior woman's blows become harsher and harsher with each word and it is clear that the lecturer is being pushed back. Still, he continues his tirade.

"Release it! That beautiful wellspring of hunger, of rage that you've suppressed all this time! Cast aside your fears, your hopes, your friends, your mind, you very humanity, everything that is holding it back!! Release your true strength, and devour everything in your path!!!"  
Word after word, the boy is forced to fight against faster, stronger blades, until as he finishes his shout, a strike he knows he cannot block comes for him.  
And then again, for the 2001st time, it stops.

Enraged at his own survival, he releases another kick to his partners chest, launching her back once more. A paltry blow as the rest were, but she barely moves after it. What the boy is trying to draw out of her, what she is trying to accept within her, this is the true fight she is going through; smokescreened by her battle with the boy. To release it would be easy, relinquish her control, her self, and let the monster use her as a vessel for its destruction. But she refuses that end. She fights to use the monster in turn, draw out the absolute limits of the strength it can provide, the dark, twisted, horrific strength she'd suppressed all this time, and then seal it once again. Two sides of the same coin that can never coexist, one trying to override. A traumatic battle for control which she had delayed her whole life is now underway, and it pushes her mind to the limits more than any physical combat has in her life.

That left the brunt of the physical damage to be managed by the boy. The stronger blade has received minimal bodily damage during this training, but that cannot be said for the other. With each battle, he has to bring himself 100% capacity to keep with with his stronger opponent. Bringing to bear as much focus, speed, power, skill as he can physically muster, for three days on end, has pushed his body well beyond its limits. However, the outcome that failing this training would bring, for his partner he simply could not accept. Forcing himself to run on adrenaline, he sauntered to his collapsed adversary once more.  
"Become the monster. That's exactly what HE did, and it's the only way you'll beat HIM"  
Slowly but surely rising from the heap she laid in, the swordswoman collects herself for more than a few moments. With a low growl rumbling out of her, and with eyes with just the faintest hint of rationality, she commences her attack for the 2002nd time.  
The boy could tell. She's close. He continues his push.

"Did you forget his strength? How the hunt fuels it? And how with it he left you broken twice?"  
Her blows are becoming more lethal as he taunts her. The monster is winning, but it's not enough, he can't let up his guard. If she finds an opening too soon, she'll just hesitate to take it again.  
"That's the peak he's reached by becoming the monster! Your strength now, combining with a monster that's only gotten stronger as you repressed it! Fought against it! You'll devour him and more! Nothing on Hydaelyn could stand to you!!  
"A little more..." he thinks, barely blocking the fatal blows raining upon him.  
"But without it you will be devoured instead. You, your clan, your Eorzea, he'll raze it to the ground!!"  
" a little more and I'll see it..."  
"And if he doesn't, I'll do it myself! So stop me, devour me, step off my life and become..."  
"...The strongest, most beautiful monster."  
He knows before he even reacts to the final slash as it moves for his head.  
It is unblockable.  
He managed to get his own blade to intercept, just barely, but as the upper half of the now cleanly twined sword implied as it laid at his feet, it didn't matter. The force behind the beheading blow alone would have snapped a frailer person's neck before the blade even made contact. The only description he can give to do it justice as the blood drips down his neck is "Monstrous."

And yet, he can describe it. For blood is dripping down his intact neck. Within the moment between the full force required to cleave the opposing blade, and before rending the boy's neck, the very last possible second, she stopped.  
The boy is stunned silent, and still unsure if he is facing a person or a monster. Until he feels a strong, suffocating impact, and hears the blade on his neck fall to the ground.  
"Ah. She won..." he thinks to himself before softening his shocked expression into a smile "Why am I not surprised?"  
The smile is short lived however, as the powerful hug he had been wrapped in begins to crush his already exhausted body. Before he can notify his hug-assailant of their act however, they pull back on their own and begin assaulting him with questions this time

"GIL!! Are you okay?! Oh gods of course your not, does it hurt? Is your head still fully attached?? How about your arms I didn't take any important limbs did I? Is anything broken?? Ahh you're bleeding! Let me get that! That was really dangerous you know! I can't believe I let you talk me into this training you almost died it's been 3 days you must be so worn out! You almost died! I almost killed you and you almost died!!  
"Yes- no- no I- listen- I am but- please don't lick the wou- its just- Yes- lis-I- oka- I jus- I- " the boy mutters, trying to keep up with the question until he realized it hopeless until he snaps her out of her frantic state.

"MOTHER!!!" he shouts, achieving just that. "I-... I am okay. More importantly I am alive. That strength, you, you really did it. You brought the monster out and... came back!"  
Gilberti's voice leaked the awe he felt at his mother's accomplishment, but her expression in contrast is one of confusion.  
"Hmm? Of course I did. That's what this training was for after all. I was always going to do it no matter how long it too- Ah! Did you do this trying to die again?!"  
The woman's nonchalantness took him aback. The confidence that she would master this dangerous training without a doubt, that she treated as just a matter of fact, was impressive beyond words to him. And yet he also felt disappointment. Between her now, and the most devastating monster this world would have ever known, which did he truly believe was better? Either way, feeling like he had a character to stick to and formulates his snide reply.

"Well, whether you conquered your monster or fell to it, whether I achieved my new goal or my old, I 'd come out the winner. Besides, it is not everyday I get to enjoy the sight of you feebly writhing on the ground like that"  
What echoed throughout the Lochs after that, was what was likely the most powerful head flick Ala Mhigo had known. Finding no end to the things that would shock him today, Gilberti holds the red mark on his forehead Xantunsia had just made as she retorts  
"Don't get cheeky with me kid!" Flashing her ever common bright grin.  
"Yeah, never mind..." drifts Gil's mind as his adrenaline finally wears off. "I know the answer..."  
"Ah, that's right, injuri-ah-hey Gil!"  
Is the last thing he hears before fatigue sets in, and he finally collapses


End file.
